Sunday, July 15, 2012

Response to Urban Renewal and Property Rights post

"Our greatest fear with a democratically elected government is creeping socialism in the name social and economic justice. Political power is centralized and individual freedom, the hallmark of true democracy, is gradually eroded.

"The issue of Eminent Domain both in the United States and the Bahamas are classic examples of the encroachment by government in the name of public interest. The legal foundation of Eminent Domain is based on two fundamental principles.

"First, for government to take someone's private property it must be determined to be in the public interest.

"Secondly, there always must be fair and adequate compensation. In many cases, particularly in the United States, what constitutes the public interest always is open to question. In the Bahamas, governments take property under the doctrine of Eminent Domain but seldom if ever pay any due and just compensation to the legal property owner. Is this a question of negligence or theft?? You be the judge.

"To expropriate private property, without due process, is not only illegal but debases the reason why we have government."